Sent by: Helix Fairweather <helix@teleport.com> >>See http://www.click-l.com/ for faqs, rules, links and other info On Wed, 10 Jun 1998, Jacqui wrote: > So, any ideas how I can c/t him into letting the vet touch his ears. At Yes, do just that! C/T him for letting someone touch his ears. You might need to have a helper, one to touch the ears and one to click. Start off with just you first. Move you hand 1" - yes 1"!! - from your lap, C/T. Gradually work up, by moving it in tiny increments, say 1/2" more when you raise criteria, to moving your hand to his nose, but not touching. Do this very carefully and rigorously EVEN IF it's OK with him to touch his nose.  You are building towards something by raising criteria ever so subtly. Once you have raised criteria to touching his nose, hold your hand there a split second, then C/T, then remove. Removing your hand is PART of the treat. When it comes to ears, he wants your hand gone and you're going to make hand going away part of the deal. Still on the nose, work up to holding the hand there for longer and longer periods of time - DON'T SKIP ANY STEPS BY THINKING I CAN HOLD MY HAND THERE FOR A LONG TIME WITH NO SWEAT! The point is you are teaching yourself how to increase increments slowly, you are teaching the dog that, if he is patient, your hand goes away eventually. Then gradually move your hand around on his muzzle as if you are inspecting every pore. Always take your hand away after the C/T, but make the 'inspection times' random lengths of time, i.e. vary the time. Once you have great inspection procedures on his muzzle, repeat the entire process on his head, top of the head. (By now you know every wart on his head eh?) Then, and only then, repeat the whole procedure with his ear. If one ear is less affected than the other, start with that one. Your goal is to always be able to C/T and remove your hand BEFORE he pulls away. Keep the raising of criteria almost imperceptible. If raising by 1/2" is too fast, go to 1/4". (Remember Bob Bailey and the jumping pig? raising the bar by 1/2" at a time?) Animals can be taught to accept handling, even when they are in pain. Many on this, and other clicker, lists have described doing similar things so I know it can be done. Once you get to the point that you can inspect his ears, you'll need to start over with moving the dropper closer, 1/2" at a time, then just touching and removing it, then touching for longer, etc etc. up to finally squeezing out a drop. Once you get that far, you'll need to start ALL OVER with another person doing the touching. Once you have worked up to that person being able to do a good 'inspection', talk to your vet, explain what you have done, and ask for sufficient time to let you C/T his touching the ear in a very gradual manner and that he is to remove hands once you C/T. This should go much, much faster because your dog has been through this slow, subtle, gradual process many times by now and it's becoming old hat. Helix *************************** Helix Fairweather The Wild Women Beardies U-CD(1/3) CH Brady, CD(1/3), CGC and CH Maggie, CGC mailto:helix@teleport.com Turner, OR Keeper Page - http://www.teleport.com/~helix/Keeper

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